A bid to secure funding to dual the A10 between Cambridge and Ely will be submitted next month.

Mayor James Palmer has described the levels of congestion and delays faced routinely by commuters at peak times on the stretch of road as "appalling".

He said that people had become frustrated with slow progress in getting the road dualled and "now it is important to show that positive action was being taken".

The combined authority's board will be recommended on Wednesday (June 26) to support a summer bid for funding to the Government's Large Local Majors (LLM) roads fund.

It is part of the £28.8 billion budget for roads investment known as the National Roads Fund, covering the period 2020-25.

The proposed bid has also won the support of South East Cambridgeshire MP Lucy Frazer, who has campaigned for several years to improve the A10 and said that dualling would be a huge boost for residents, commuters and for future economic growth.

If the board approves the recommendation, the bid will be submitted in July.

Mayor James Palmer said: "For far too long those travelling between Cambridge and Ely on the A10 have suffered appalling delays which is costing people time and money and is holding back our economy.

"And people rightly get frustrated when they hear talk of dualling the road but see very little progress.

"The combined authority is focusing specifically on the dualling as a key priority and we are already undertaking business case work which brings that upgrade closer than it has ever been before.

"Whatever the outcome of this bid, our work to dual this stretch of the A10 will continue."

In March the combined authority approved taking the most significant step forward yet in the delivery of the A10 dualling by approving funding to carry out a Strategic Outline Business Case (SOBC) on the upgrade.

Whatever the result of the funding bid, the SOBC work will continue.

If the bid is successful, dualling works could begin as early as 2023.

Dualling the stretch of the A10 is identified as necessary to cope with current demand and anticipated levels of growth in the corridor.

Anticipated growth in the A10 Cambridge to Ely corridor has been estimated to generate up to 17,000 new homes and 14,000 new jobs.

Early estimates of the cost of fully dualling the road range from £235-£500 million.

A separate bid for funding for a programme of junction improvements on the A10 will also be put to the board, targeting another government fund known as the Major Road Network investment programme.